It’s a defining moment for someone when s/he reads a news article, stops to think, and realizes that some piece of important information is missing. The author either missed an important detail or otherwise decided to omit it from the piece.

Over time and with greater attention to the media, picking up on this starts to become a sort of PR sixth sense. Tune in to FOX News and you can’t go five minutes without starting to get the itch.

In more respectable outlets and across different types of paid and unpaid media, however, it’s a bit harder to notice. Throw in a mixture of distractions like photos or slick graphic design to woo your eyes over and it’s even harder to notice what’s not there.

That’s what happened this weekend when we glazed over XM’s full page ad in the NYT.

The piece was an open letter in the front section touting some XM customer promises. They included:

• You’ll continue to get great programming – and the choice to get it from Sirius too.
• Existing programming won’t be interrupted.
• You can expect to receive the same service you’ve been getting.

While media idols like Mel Karmazin battle it out with the FCC to try and convince the committee that the satellite brothers complete with terrestrial radio, customers are more concerned about whether or not their subscription fees are going to go up. Not whether or not we’re going to loose Oprah & Friends in the deal.

Unfortunately the advertorial team at XM didn’t think it was worth mentioning or committing to in this bit of information in the piece. That’s okay, later in the Times was an editorial piece that touched on just that.

As far as price is concerned, Mr. Karmazin made it plain to the House committee that he would be willing to agree to a price cap for the combined service to seal the deal. The pitch is that raising prices isn’t really feasible anyway because most of what satellite radio is competing with out there is free — particularly on the radio.

ONCE more, this seems slightly at odds with statements that Mr. Karmazin made only a few months ago, Jonathan A. Jacoby, a Banc of America Securities analyst, wrote last week in a report. At an investor conference in December, Mr. Jacoby said, Mr. Karmazin talked up the potential for raising prices beyond the $12.95 a month most people pay now.

A click over to Sirius shows that they’re more interested in helping customers understand that their current radio will not become obsolete when and if the merger goes through.

While this is more-or-less an advertorial and Web communications example, the same holds true for pure editorials produced as a result of media relations.

Keep an eye out for what’s not there – it’s often the most important part of the story.

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This entry was posted on Monday, March 5th, 2007 at 12:15 am and is filed under Advertising, Media, PR. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.